


Auditory Reflections

by ThunderDownOnGreenside



Series: The Many Ways to Come Together [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Again with the damn pairing names, Angsty Schmoop, Implied Relationships, M/M, MikoRin, SeijuuRin, Seirin, another tumblr blurb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-09
Updated: 2013-12-09
Packaged: 2018-01-04 03:09:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderDownOnGreenside/pseuds/ThunderDownOnGreenside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it was quiet in the natatorium. Other times, between the crying and the screaming and the echoing, things could get a little overwhelming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Auditory Reflections

**Author's Note:**

> And again I am posting more MikoRin to procrastinate giving Deconstructed its happy ending which is also MikoRin. Are you seeing a problem here because I am definitely a little concerned. Also summary sucks to suck T_T Anyway, enjoy! Sorry about any typos!

Tile floors are slick and shiny, solid beneath one’s feet and cold even when the season isn’t. Their smooth surfaces are dangerous when wet, somewhat life-threatening even when dry if one is wearing socks, and have a great capacity for sending off echoes when the room is mostly empty.

 

  
Putting tile floors in the Samezuka natatorium was kind of a bad idea as it was, and any swim team that went there knew it. Any clumsy idiot unwilling to obey the “No Running” rule learned very quickly the repercussions for being reckless, and everyone else could easily gather from said idiot’s mistake that those damn signs were there for a reason.

 

  
But back to the echoes.

 

  
Seijuurou was familiar with the constant bouncing chatter while practice was on, the steady lap of the water against the edges of the pool, the refracting sounds of a sloppy start or the smooth swish of a proper kickoff. You could hear someone cussing from the other side of the facility and when he blew the whistle, he was sure that the whole campus could hear it. There was power in those echoes, a skill that had to be learned to control those sounds reflected by those unassuming tile floors.

 

  
Sometimes, later in the day, he’d come by to grab something from the office and it would be much quieter. Still the soft lapping of careful waves, his feet against the floor, but every breath could be heard, standing out and no longer blending with a thousand other breaths, a thousand other heartbeats, endless footsteps and splashes and all the normal proceedings that took place in the natatorium. Usually, he finds it quiet.

 

  
But not today.

 

  
He’s just opened the door and he’s immediately assaulted by a ragged cry, a huge breath and a wild splash as someone launches themselves into the pool. The sounds are thunderous, the breath a gust of wind, the splash a torrent of rain, the pained noise a jagged shard of lightning electrifying the whole room and shooting straight into his heart. He pauses, one hand on the wall, holding his breath as he listens to someone charge through the water, strokes choppy and frantic and nothing like anyone on his team is actually supposed to sound like. It’s concerning at the very least.

 

  
Seijuurou is just about to approach the pool and try to get a glimpse of which one of his teammates is having a mental breakdown when he hears them break the surface and let out another wail. The sound is chilling, agonized, terrifying and so very, very loud, echoing off the tiles and drilling straight into his head. It makes him want to run, to curl up somewhere and hide, to back the fuck off and go somewhere else stat before he winds up a part of this but he knows he can’t, he knows that he has to try to do at least  _something_.

 

  
He peers around the corner wall, taking a stab at caution before realizing that the other would never notice his presence as it was, they were too far gone. He could see them slumped along the edge, clinging halfway to the outcropping, muffled sobs easily heard across the room. Long red hair is soaked and plastered down with water weight and dark colored goggles float forgotten in the lane behind them.

 

  
Rin.

 

  
Seijuurou sighs and heads out across the deck, uncaring of the loudness of his footfalls that will surely alert his estranged teammate. He sees Rin start at the new sounds, whirling around with wide, tear-filled eyes, too frightened to even muster up a snarl. The smaller male can only watch as his captain approaches him, and when Seijuurou crouches on the edge beside him, he doesn’t get much more of a reaction.

 

  
“Matsuoka.”

 

  
His voice is quiet but Rin flinches all the same. His heavy breathing is shrill and quicker than he’s ever heard it, too fast for merely swimming, too much for regular work, and Seijuurou can’t help but wonder what the younger has been doing this whole time.

 

  
“What do you want.” Rin’s voice is barely above a whisper, empty and unquestioning. He’s shutting down, face tilted away, strands of damp hair hanging down to cover up his eyes. It’s a blatant show of disconnection, an attempt at closing Seijuurou off, and he can’t have that right now, not if he’s planning on getting to the bottom of all this. Carefully, he reaches out, tucking a finger and thumb under the younger’s chin and tilting his face up, unable to resist a soft smile at the look of utter surprise on Rin’s face.

 

  
“I want to know what’s wrong.” He says gently, and Rin’s bottom lip trembles slightly at the tone. It’s too much. He can’t do this. He tears himself away from his captain with another cry, pushing out into the pool and hiding his face again, skin still burning where the other’s fingers had touched him. His chest is on fire, airways sucked dry by oxygen and he’s drowning above water, there’s a shriek building up inside of him, he can’t do this, it’s too much-

 

  
And then there’s an arm around his waist and a hand around his upraised wrist and Seijuurou’s warm mouth is pressed against his own, bare chest slicked with water and Rin wonders briefly when did he get in the pool with him? But it goes away soon because his captain is kissing him, and it’s soft, and it’s hesitant, and it’s therapy like nothing else has ever been so he goes with it, moving closer and throwing his free arm up around Seijuurou’s neck, hanging on like the older male is the only thing that he has left in this world.

 

  
Sometimes it feels a little like that.

 

  
Rin still can’t breathe when Seijuurou backs off a bit for air, and he gathers his last scraps of rational thought to formulate his question:

 

  
“Why?”

 

  
And his captain just smiles, exhaling so that it echoes around the facility like a rush from the heavens, and murmurs against Rin’s mouth

 

  
“Because you’re not alone.”

 

  
Right now, between Seijuurou and these auditory reflections, he’s got all that he needs.


End file.
